Hello friends,
Thank you so much for your prayers leading up to and during the Biblical Counseling Conference in Lafayette, Indiana. If you don't have time to read the entire blog here is the super short version: I had an amazing week and God answered your prayers!
Here is the longer version:
I was so blessed by this week and God worked in some amazing ways. First I'll give you a quick rundown from the week, then share about how God specifically answered your prayers. We left early Saturday morning and about 10 hours later we got to Lafayette. We went out for supper and by the time we got back to the hotel I was shot. I was coughing and sneezing and felt terrible. When I got up the next morning I still didn't feel well so I stayed in the hotel while everyone else went to church, lunch and a store to get snacks and whatnot. I ended up missing the first session on Sunday night which was okay with me because I got to watch the entire Super Bowl which made me very happy! I watched the first half in my room and when everyone got back at halftime we had a party out in the lobby. What a great game! I sure do love my Super Bowl winning Packers :-) On Monday I went to all of the sessions. I coughed all the way through, but I made it. Monday night I coughed all night long and kept my roommates up - sorry ladies - so they made me go to Urgent Care on Tuesday morning. I went and got drugs and slept the rest of the day. That was just what my body needed because I was able to go to all of the remaining sessions. Sure I was still coughing a ton, but I made it! It was funny, every day I was at the conference someone I didn't know gave me some form of a cough drop. The most interesting one I got was mentholated licorice flavor. What a surprise to the taste buds!
I had some very specific prayer requests for this week. Here is how God answered them:
I will not have muscle and joint pain. I did not have very much muscle or joint pain at all. This was a huge answer to prayer. Sure there were days I was a little sore and stiff, but it really wasn't too bad. I'm more sore today than I was all week.
I will have the ability to concentrate and listen well. I did! Even with being sick I was able to listen and concentrate well. I had a clear mind and was able to comprehend everything they were teaching. I can't say I remember it all at the moment, but I remember some of it and have a whole binder of notes I can look back on. This was one of my biggest concerns before I went and it is still amazing to me to think about how clear I was even with such little sleep. Yeah God!
I will have strength and energy for each moment of each day. God answered this prayer as well. Even though I was sick I only missed one day of the conference. Even though I coughed through all the sessions I felt like I had strength and energy and I was able to get through them. Normally when I get sick like this it completely wipes me out for a week or two and I can hardly function so this was a huge blessing and answer to prayer.
I don't have any issues with my asthma. God answered this in a unique way! When we checked into our hotel Saturday night my roommates and I got a room on the third floor. As soon as the elevator door opened we could smell cigarette smoke which is not good for my asthma at all. One of my roommates also has asthma and neither one of us could breathe. We went back to the lobby and got a different room on the second floor. This room was better, but still smelled like smoke so back to the lobby we went. Almost all of their rooms were full for the week so we ended up getting one of the suites on the first floor. The air was clear and the room was nice and big for the four of us. My roommates especially appreciated the fact that they could banish me to the windowsill for the week because I was sick. That's okay, I still infected them all and it was actually pretty comfortable!
God will reveal to me my role in Biblical Counseling at church. This is still to be worked out, but I do feel that God confirmed my involvement with Biblical Counseling. I soaked up all the information like a sponge and loved every minute of it. It was such good, practical, specific information about how to help people deal with anything they are going through by turning to the Bible for hope, help, answers and real life change. We had sessions on fear and worry, forgiveness, anger, physical and mental illness, the role of husbands, the role of wives, parenting and so much more. I had to remind myself in some of these sessions that even though the information might not apply to me at the moment, there is a good chance that I will counsel people that these issues do apply to.
God will do anything necessary to teach me what He wants me to learn. God taught me so many things this week. One of the things we heard over and over again is that the best counselor is first a good counselee. In other words, as we learn and grow and apply the truth of God's Word to our own lives then we are able to help others to do the same. As we were learning how to counsel people in these different topics I learned so much to apply to my own life. One of my favorite sessions was Counseling People with a Physical Illness. That spoke to my heart and blessed me greatly. There were so many other things that God taught me, truths about forgiveness, anger, worry and fear.
God will do anything necessary to help me grow more into His likeness. I sent an e-mail right before I left asking for prayer that my cold would get better and that I wouldn't have to get antibiotics. I feel like God allowed me to be sick and used that sickness to show Himself faithful to me in so many ways. He enabled me to attend almost all of the sessions even though I was sick. He helped me to understand and comprehend things. Thursday night I had an allergic reaction to the antibiotic I got on Tuesday and broke out in hives. Even in that God was taking care of me because it was just a rash and I didn't stop breathing and have to go to the emergency room. A little Benadryl and I was fine by morning. Through all of this God taught me that if He wants me to do something He will enable me. It may not be easy, but together we'll get through it!
One of the things that stood out to me this week was that in almost every session they talked about the heart. What is in our heart comes out in our thoughts and actions. As we change our though patterns and walk in obedience to God's Word our hearts change. As our hearts change, actions will follow and we will become more like Christ.
So all in all this was an amazing week. I feel so much more refreshed and energized than when I left and I have a renewed passion for the Word of God. I learned a lot of things that I now need to implement in my own life and teach others. I am so blessed and encouraged by how God answered our prayers and I hope that you are too. Thank you for standing with me in the battle. I feel like there was a spiritual battle going on to keep me from the conference and take me out when I was there, but we won and can now celebrate the victory in Jesus!
